Finnchat Unicorn – Business Development Manager: Paul Giessmann

Paul is a born and bred berliner, who spends his free time hitting the gym as well as enjoying the smashing Berlin nightlife. Paul has been working with us for more than a year now. Here is a short interview about his daily life and he will also share tips on how to be a pro sales guy.

1. Tell about your duties and tasks at Finnchat.

My daily tasks here in Finnchat is basically everything around sales. I do a lot of cold calls and struggle with potential and existing customers every day. Struggle meaning in a positive way but from time to time a lot of cigarettes is needed. Also a walk to the gym after work or some after work beers with friends help to release the fumes and give power for the next day.
Between the cold calls and video meetings with existing and potential customers and all the other hustle, I’m hanging with my beloved Moccamaster consuming a lot of black coffee, sometimes even having it with a hint of milk.

2. Why Finnchat?

Finnchat gives me the possibility to develop individually and professionally. Here in Berlin we have a young team with many different individuals. I get to share my talents to colleagues but also learn a lot from the others as well. Respect of the other is the key to strong discussions. I like the chill atmosphere in our office and the relaxed Finnish spirit combined with the German one is only causing a good challenge. You can say what you want, you can be friendly, angry and even loud to each other but the next day everything is forgotten, that’s cool here. Nobody is vengeful and that also supports the message of nobody being perfect.

Respect of the other is the key to strong discussions.

3. You have done thousands of sales calls so you must have an image of a perfect call.
What do your calls include and how do you get them from start to finish? Any secrets or tips you want to share?

Oh I have and I love it! Every call is different since in every call there is a completely different type of customer on the line. I try to find out first which kind of customer I’m talking with – that’s always the biggest challenge.

When I understand the customer, I can easily then bring the right arguments to gain customer to my side. Of course eventually the perfect call is a call that ends in a deal, but also a good call for me includes a great conversation and a bit of fun makes it even better – those are the perfect calls in my opinion.

I always try to be real and honest on the telephone and try more and more to learn to ask the right questions to find out customer’s real needs.
This is the most important thing – Find out the needs and bring them up and then just deliver! Try to keep the conversation interesting and don’t talk too much about god, the world and things they don’t wanna hear 😉

My secret tip:
Be you, be real, be honest – show the customer that you are the right person to help him/her because of your attitude and instinct!